Talk by Emilia Huerta-Sanchez (Assistant Professor at Brown University in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Computational Biology) on Archaic admixture facilitates adaptation in humans in the Tibetan region.

As humans settled around the world, they encountered and adapted to many diverse and challenging environments. The genetic changes that facilitated our adaptations are still present in our genome sequences, and can be discovered by looking for specific signatures derived from evolutionary models. Recent breakthroughs in sequencing ancient DNA have allowed the generation of DNA from archaic humans like Neanderthals and Denisovans. By comparing archaic and modern human genomes, we can detect remnants of archaic DNA in present-day human genomes, suggesting that they interbred in the past. In this talk I describe how archaic variants are distributed across individuals from different human populations and how admixture from archaic humans likely accelerated adaptations to local environments such as different diets, pathogens, temperatures and altitudes.